A poll shows that a whopping 64 percent of Democrats support the Occupy Wall Street etc. movement versus only 22 percent of independents and 14 percent of Republicans.

Most Americans, per the AP-GfK poll released last week, don’t approve of the so-called “leaderless” movement “protesting” the “greed and corruption” of Wall Street, banks and multinational corporations, etc. Overall, 56 percent of the people surveyed said they did not support the protests, while only 37 percent backed the occupiers.

Even more telling, most of the protest backers “are more likely to approve of President Barack Obama and more likely to disapprove of Congress than are people who don’t support the demonstrations,” the Associated Press said in reporting on its AP-GfK poll released last week.

Nor do most of the protest supporters blame Obama for the economic mess. Instead, 68 percent said President George W. Bush should get “almost all” or “a lot but not all” of the blame — versus only 15 percent saying that about Obama. And nearly 60 percent of the protest supporters, naturally, blame Republicans in Congress for our economic problems.

This is a familiar refrain from Democrats, but can they use it effectively as ammunition in the coming elections? Another related question is: how long will mayors and other elected officials continue to tolerate the camping out in public places (and a private park in Manhattan) and all the mess and problems generated by the Occupiers?

New Yorkers living near the occupied Zuccotti Park last week complained about “protesters” messing in the streets and beating drums during the night. At a community board meeting, member Catherine Hughes said, “They’re defecating on our doorsteps.” Some neighbors wanted the crowd to leave the park, not surprisingly, but the board chickened out with a unanimous resolution recognizing the free speech rights of the “protesters” and calling for “a crackdown on noise and public urination and defecation,” the Associated Press reported.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg complained about how hard it was to negotiate with the leaderless bunch. He said on WOR Radio, “It’s a little bit complicated by there’s nobody to work it out with.” He doesn’t want to crack down on the campers, defecating or not, because he doesn’t know where it will lead.

In Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed has been trying to cope with the Woodruff Park occupiers and has set a Nov. 7 deadline for them to clear out, according to news reports. But what happens if they don’t leave? Can they create a video confrontation with police? That could result in use of police force, even in defense, providing invaluable video footage to excite more “protesters.”

As Mayor Reed pointed out earlier, arresting large numbers of people creates big problems of where to put them. Meanwhile, the “protests” drag on, the costs to maintain porta-johns and police the camps keep mounting.

There is no end in sight, but maybe some really cold weather will chill this movement.

You said, "it is a lie designed to mystify and obscure the imbalances and exploitation at the heart of capitalism, and make the majority vote for their own death."

No one ever said the world was fair, or didn't you listen to your parents? You people are living in some utopian pipe dream, claiming that your way, whatever the heck that is this day, this minute, is the best way. Yet more people have been killed, murdered, under socialism, marxism and communism than under any other political philosophy. And more people have been brought UP because of capitalism, which grows everything and exists only with freedom. Go back to KSU or wherever it is you attended school for what, 3 days? You have things so bassackwards.

Make haste my friend . Get the hie to Zucotti Park. It is where your sentimnments lie.

I see the efforts that some of the youth are trying to bring to national attention. Unfortunately they have drawn great numbers of Marxists and generally speaking, unhappy young complainer who really have no solutions, only complaints. They are drowning or blotting out the few sane voices.

It has turned into a rabble, with its main purpose, at least, it seems to me, nothing more than protest for protest sake and the freedom of having a good time at the expense of the rest of us.

Too bad, as the issue of a significant imbalance of wealth is worthy of decent debate.

Absolutely amazing. I can remember being at the first Tea Party at the capitol in Atlanta in the pouring rain and cold when a number of people were threatened with arrest by an Atlanta policeman because they were "standing on a pubic sidewalk" - what a difference a couple of years - and I presume the subject of the protest - makes. And on top of that, after the meeting, people were picking up all of the signs and any trash that might have been left. I personally put 4 wet soggy signs in my trunk so the area would be left clean - probably cleaner than before any of us arrived - and it was.

what? the tea party doesn't litter and poop? i didn't realize the right ring was so super human they didn't produce waste.

describing OWS support for Obama and the Democratic party is misleading. many of the protesters say they support Obama's re-election but this is only because the idea of Romney or Perry as president is horrifying. all of congress, Democrat or Republican, is owned by wall street. they form a totality, and totalities include contradictory parts. their support for the working class is only to get votes, so that it can be easier to funnel more taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the hyper-rich. OWS is actually a grassroots campaign, unlike the tea party, which was conjured from the cash of the billionaire Koch brothers. most tea partiers lack the capacity to even create a coherent ideological platform, but this is OK for them because they have a few interchangeable republican politicians and billionaires telling them what to say. OWS has no such guidance, it rejects such guidance, and must deal with the obstacle of organizing diffuse and contradictory viewpoints into a coherent platform. comparisons between the two are flawed from the beginning. OWS is disorganized because it reflects a diversity of discontents and cultural background, that have been ignored and repressed by government and the corporate media for decades. it's a movement built from the actual fringes of society. not the TV land of the tea party.

get with it. america needs to get its head out of the sand and stop listening to the lies of the corporate media. manipulation of the masses through media is a science. it is real. tell trusting people how the world works and they will act accordingly. when this worldview is informed by profit margins something is wrong.

we are not sheep. and as such, we will not absent-mindedly follow a shepard in a suit just because he has a TV show. we are not dumb. our discontents are real, UNLIKE "reality" TV. the 24/7 media dynamo, that demands our demands, is not real, in that it reflects the greed of a small class of the hyper-rich and not the needs of the majority. it is a lie designed to mystify and obscure the imbalances and exploitation at the heart of capitalism, and make the majority vote for their own death. do we need to be fighting over water in America before people realize this?

our lives are determined by a for-profit system that won't help the millions of people who starve and die everyday because they don't have money. appeals by this ruling elite to God and Jesus is appalling, gives religion a bad name. you know something is wrong when impressionable young atheists use the words religion and fundamentalism interchangeably because all they know of religion is Bachmann, Perry, and Palin with their sermons of death, racism, and exclusion. WHAT IS THIS?! Jesus wanted me to hate Mexicans and nature and vote for corporations instead? Jesus didn't even know what a corporation was...

we have the technological capability to end world hunger, stop global warming, and house everyone. we don't do so because it would cut off the flow of money into the pockets of coal and oil CEOs, insurance CEOs, bankers, and the lords of every other industry that produces a commodity. their pockets are no where close to the millions of people who duplicitously follow them like blind beggars.

Money does not "trickle down."

Cutting taxes to the rich does not boost the economy. Cutting social welfare does not either.

why would you trust someone whom you've never met (unless you think seeing them on TV counts as knowing them), that works in an 80th floor office suite, and never shows their true face? have you ever heard the word "sociopath?" we live in a country run by sociopaths. masters of deception, manipulation, devoid of any compassion for other human beings, and they wear the mask of Jesus.

my demands are broad and vague, yes. but REAL people, not mythic inventions of the Koch brothers and CNN, are demanding changes more drastic than ever before. we live in an era, when, for the first time, humanity actually has the technology to destroy the world as we know it. the powers that be would see this happen if it means they can live more comfortably behind their gates and barbed wire and security cameras, isolated from the people who currently vote them into power. it's time for the working class, that is YOU, to stop trusting the talking head on the television (most likely another manipulated dope), rise up, and make your own future. we, as a species, have so much power and potential, but it is almost ALL going to the benefit of an elite few. it's time that this power was actually put to the benefit of humanity.

OWS protestors don't go home at night. Tea Party protestors go home and don't leave their human waste at the site of the protest. The homeless have joined OWS because of the free food.

People can protest without destroying the surrounding area of nearby residents & businesses. Tea Party members have proven that. Had Tea Party protestors acted as the OWS crowd is acting, they would have had no credibility and they would have been locked up and removed from the area. But the OWS crowd is praised by the President of the U.S. & the media, given money and free food, furnished outdoor toliets, and allowed to stay as long as desired.

I have a solution. Let OWS have the half the front page of every newspaper and the first 15 minutes of every newscast in America to lay out their proposed "solutions" to stopping the "greed" they are protesting against. By the next day OWS support will drop to 2% and people will be clamoring that these dopes get cleared out of every park and pay taxpayers to clean up the mess they have caused.

I recall conservative commentators saying the same things about the anti-war movement in the 1960's. When Americans started looking at what the protesters actually stood for, popular support for them grew rapidly.

OWS began a little more than a month ago and one-third of the country supports the movement. Once Americans get past all the anti-OWS rhetoric, that is very likely to grow.

By contrast, 40% of Americans polled in August said they had an unfavorable view of the Tea Party and only 18% said they supported the Tea Party.

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